Toronto Heats Up and Handle with Care

 This week has been a real whirl wind for me.  Lots going on.  As mentioned on a previous blog we have enjoyed the wonderful Harvest Full Moon all week and also the weather has been all over the map.  After posting my last blog I discovered that there are quite a few Harvest Moon events going on.  I would have like to get to see the  Mid Autumn Lantern Parade which is tonight at the Harvest Moon Celebration  at Harbourfront, but I opted to "get out of Dodge" instead.

We had the first day of Fall officially arrive on Wed morning.  We were confronted with  a torrential storm on Tuesday night, which downed trees and left great swatches of the GTA without power and unseasonable hot temperatures, made it a weird weather week.  We set temperature records  yesterday when it reached 30.5 degrees Celsius.  No fear that it will last, it is September and the temperatures do drop to the low teens at night. Today we are expecting the day time high to be a more conventional 16.


I decided to trek up to my Collingwood Shangri-La for the weekend, my condo in the city is on the market and it is just easier when there are showings going on.  The good news is that I have had a bit of action and there are some indications of an offer might be in the wings.  I have my fingers crossed.

I will be staying in town over next weekend - Saturday night is Nuit Blanche!  The history, concept and venues included in this annual Toronto all night arts event is described in the 2010 Nuit Blanche promotional website.  From the City of Toronto Message:

As the fifth edition of Toronto's Scotiabank Nuit Blanche approaches, it's clear that what began as a new concept for a free, all-night 'contemporary art thing', has become one of the most important and anticipated contemporary art events in Canada.

It all began at dusk on a rainy September evening in 2006, when the first Scotiabank Nuit Blanche was unleashed on an unsuspecting city. Since then, the event has been a platform for more than 600 official art installations by nearly 2,000 artists, representing more than 15 countries worldwide

 It is a bit of a circus but lots of fun and so much to see and do!  Artistic venues are open all night and vast swatches of the city are, for one night only, turned into outdoor exhibit spaces as art installations dominate every green space and other spots temporarily borrowed for the occasion.   Many streets are closed to traffic as the crowds wander the streets taking in the visual and interactive exhibits and partaking in the revelry in support of the arts.    Public transit runs all night and there is a hop on hop off Nuit Blanche ticket you can buy for $10.  -- which I will avail myself of.  Liberty Village is one of the neighbourhoods promoted as an event hub.  This year I am going to try to get up to see Zone A, which is in the central part of Toronto, just north of Bloor Street.

I have attended this event in each of the last 2 years.  Go here to read my blogs on previous year's events. 

Handle With Care and the Power (and disappointment) of "I'd Like That"

When I woke up this morning and turned on my usual, CBC Radio 2, the song Handle With Care was playing.  Whenever I have the opportunity on a weekend day morning I listen to Molly Johnson who hosts their morning program over the weekends.   I am never disappointed with the song selections and her morning chat is particularly interesting since she is a fabulous musician in her own right and a contemporary (and friend of) many of my favourite Canadian musicians.  The song was perfect for my mood and got me launched into my morning blog and wandering through the content for this next section.

According to Wiki:

"Handle with Care" is the first track from the Traveling Wilburys 1988 album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, and the group's biggest hit. Writing credits are shared by all five band members, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan.


The single reached #45 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, #2 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, #21 on the UK singles chart and #3 on the ARIA Chart.

The story goes that the  musicians were sitting around having dinner and George was casting about for song ideas for the B side to go with his single "This is Love".  Interestingly, a beat up box was the inspiration for the title "Handle with Care" and the line "Been beat up and battered 'round".  The song was written collaboratively and was deemed too good for a B side.  The song became the impetus for the Travelling Wilburys to form as a band and was on their debut album, Traveling Wilburys Vol 1 released in 1988.

I am not sure I am imagining it, but I seem to recall that this song was included in the Tom Petty concert I attended in the summer.  It is a great song.





(The Traveling Wilburys)
Been beat up and battered 'round
Been sent up, and I've been shot down
You're the best thing that I've ever found

Handle me with care
Reputations changeable
Situations tolerable
But baby, you're adorable
Handle me with care
I'm so tired of being lonely
I still have some love to give
Won't you show me that you really care

Everybody's got somebody to lean on
Put your body next to mine, and dream on

I've been fobbed off, and I've been fooled
I've been robbed and ridiculed
In day care centers and night schools
Handle me with care

(Guitar Solo)

Been stuck in airports, terrorized
Sent to meetings, hypnotized
Overexposed, commercialized
Handle me with care

I'm so tired of being lonely
I still have some love to give
Won't you show me that you really care

Everybody's got somebody to lean on
Put your body next to mine, and dream on

I've been uptight and made a mess
But I'll clean it up myself, I guess
Oh, the sweet smell of success
Handle me with care

The Power of "I'd Like That"

Whilst casting about for information on "Handle with Care", I came across this John Mayer song -it has a line "I'm Tired of Being Lonely", just as the Traveling Wilburys song does.    In it he gives a neat intro which pretty much sums up the reason why we have to  "Handle with Care" our relationships.  Most will probably go south.  (Do I sound cynical?)  It also nicely expresses the my state of mind this weekend, given that the early stages of an "I want to be with you" relationship, which had looked like it might be something that would last at least a season, went down the tubes for me this week.




lyrics to Love Song For No One / John Mayer

Room For Squares (2001)
Staying home alone on a Friday
Flat on the floor looking back
On old love
Or lack thereof
After all the crushes are faded
And all my wishful thinking was wrong
I'm jaded
I hate it

I'm tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here
So tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here
(get here)

Searching all my days just to find you
I'm not sure who I'm looking for
I'll know it
When I see you
Until then, I'll hide in my bedroom
just staying up all night just to write
A love song for no one

I'm tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here
So tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here

I could have met you in a sandbox
I could have passed you on the sidewalk
Could I have missed my chance
And watched you walk away?
Oh no way

I could have met you in a sandbox
I could have passed you on the sidewalk
Could I have missed my chance
And watched you walk away?

I'm tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here
So tired of being alone
So hurry up and get here
You'll be so good
You'll be so good for me

Centurion Weekend at Blue Mountain

 This weekend was the Centurion Cycling Event at Blue Mountain.  I haven't the time to do really do justice in this blog about the event, however did want to post some pictures and to tell about the free concert which was held at the Village of Blue late yesterday afternoon as part of the weekend long event.  

I slipped up to the Village to have a listen and hang out to watch the band.  It started to pour rain just before the concert started, so I did not venture out until an hour after the start and so did not catch the opening act, The Watchmen.  I did catch the headliner, 54•40 who are  a well known Canadian alternative rock group from British Columbia.

I captured a few bits and pieces of the Concert on my admittedly "almost good enough" camera, which will capture videos as well.  It is just over 6 minutes long and offers up the flavour of the event.  We were happily rocking at the event despite the rain.




For those who are not familiar with Canada's 54-40 the following is the complete version of one of the tunes they did at the concert.  The  quality of my little Video is pretty bad - gives you an idea of what was happening but you will have a better appreciation of the band if you watch this You Tube.






Some Photos from the Centurion's, 100 Mile Gran Fondo or Cyclosportive event, which was held today. It took a bit of doing to figure out what point would put me ahead of the pack and in position for some good photos, given I decided not to get up and out the the Village to see the start at 7:30.  I hit the route at three different points and finally got a postition ahead of the race and took some shots as they approached me.

The Leader (#49) is well ahead of the pack as they approached Highway 4 on County Road 63.

Second in the Race flashed me a smile as he flew by.

The Leading Pack is just behind #558.

They fly by.... the 2nd pack is 10 minutes behind.

For the full set of pictures check out my Picasa Album Blue Mountain Centurion Sept 18 & 19 2010.  
If you know someone who was in the Centurion, go here for the list of partipants in order of completion time.  The best time was for Ed Veal of Queensville,  with a time of 4:52:43.3.  Pretty awsome for a distance of 100 miles / 160 KM of up and down.

Gabriel García Márquez, Franz Kafka and Magical Realism

Magical Realism in photography

This week we had some interesting weather.  Fall is definitely in the air and it has been a week of getting used to wearing a fall coat.   We had a few days of very heavy rain in Toronto  and one early evening of spectacular pink/grey clouds, which I have salted amongst the paragraphs below.     The days are noticeably shorter - getting up in the dark now and I don't like it one bit.  The sun starts to set just a scant hour after I get home after work which is equally disturbing.

Yes, I am working late and most days not getting out of the office until 6:30 or 7:00 after putting in 10 - 11 hours.  I am drained at the end of the day, but in a good way - I am enjoying my new job.   I also watched the moon this week, a waxing crescent well up on the horizon in the southern sky long before sunset. As darkness fell that night, the moon shimmered on Lake Ontario and I wished that someone special was there to share the wonderful view with me or at least that a photo could do justice.
 
Last year I read the first 300 pages of the 400 page novel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez' - "One Hundred Years of Solitude". I had previously read his novel Love in the Time of Cholera (right to the end LOL) and enjoyed that novel immensely.  I recall writing a blog about it, but it seems I did not tag it so can't get my hands on the link.  I noticed the 2nd Marquez novel sitting on the bookcase this morning at my Collingwood Shangri-La and made a mental note to move it up a bit in my reading queue.

Before I continue on the subject of this blog, let me digress.

I used to read a lot of novels, B.C.   (Before Children).  I spent the first 28.5 years of my life (that is when my oldest son Jeff arrived on this planet), reading several books a week.  I would routinely get so engrossed in whatever novel I was reading that I could not put it down until it was finished.  I tended to pick up a book and read it to the end without interruption then wait a few days (whilst getting on with my life) until I picked up a new book and then the cycle would start again.  There were many nights I dragged myself into work with only a few hours sleep since I could not put down the current read.   I had to stop that once my babies started arriving.  I still do read voraciously during vacation and can consume a dozen books in a week's vacation, if on my own - but generally now find it difficult to find time to read even a chapter or two of a novel in any given week.

Mostly it is because I spend much more time reading bits and pieces online, blogging and the other dozen hobbies/habits developed in this last decade.  Of course in the 15 years following the birth of Jeff and my other 4 children I had no time at all to even think, let alone to devote to reading.   Now that I have no children at home I have instead a very mentally demanding job and I need to be at the top of my game during the 10 or so hours each day I work.  I find I need a solid 7 hours of sleep to function well and with a tired brain at the end of the day I am just not able to read in the evening.  So my "wanna read" list grows.   

In this last year or so  I seem to be collecting books to be read but not doing any reading to speak of.  I have counted now 7 "paper" novels or books of non fiction I have "in progress" and at least a dozen  I have on the "to be read" pile.  I did not bother going through my book list on my Kindle - I know there are probably a few dozen unread books loaded into the device and I have at least 5 on the go in that medium.   I have got to have to look at my routines and find some time to earmark for reading. 

Waxing Cresent Moon from my balcony at 7:30 PM

One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

So back to the topic which was sparked by me picking up again (after a long pause) Gabo's One Hundred Years of Solitude.  FYI, Gabo is the name that Marquez is affectionately known as in Latin America.
This novel is a multi-generational account of the Buendía Family, whose patriarch, José Arcadio Buendía, founds the town of Macondo which is a metaphor for Colombia in this novel.

Marquez, awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982, is known  for his experimental approaches to reality in fiction and his novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is just one example of his various different styles which tinker with conventional novel approaches.  In this novel he uses Magic Realism, described by Wiki as:

An aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality.

It has been probably 8 months since I put this novel down having read 3/4 of it.  The novel is really engaging - busy - full of life - an epic novel, really sort of Latin version of  Forsythe Saga with some interesting bends in the fabric of reality to keep you on your toes.

The defining characteristic about this style is that fantastic and unbelievable things occur in an every day setting and are totally believed and in incorporated as normal within the context of the novel.  As an example,  the character Remedios the Beauty is hanging out her laundry to dry one day and the angels from heaven arrive and she suddenly  ascends to heaven.  The suggestionis that she is both too beautiful and too wise to continue to live on earth.   This is incorporated in the novel in the same way as if the story line was that she had gotten on a train and had left town on a long journey.   Every chapter contains several fantastic "magical" events recounted in the same manner.    There are many metaphors to ponder when reading this novel.  It is not a quick read.

The skyline was the result of a  master painter at work

This novel is a literary giant in the Latin world and is an exemplar of a  novel in the magical realism genre.  The most notable part is that it is just not any story with magical bits inserted - it is the dominent theme of the novel - - and the mythical setting and what it represents which makes this novel such a giant in Latin Literature.  From Wiki:

 One Hundred Years of Solitude illustrates that contemporary Latin America has resulted from the absence of purposeful political organisation and will required for progress. The tragedy of Latin America is the lack of a definitive national identity, without which there is only self-destruction, not preservation. This might be partly attributed to five centuries of Spanish colonialism; nevertheless, the continual violence, repression, and exploitation, rob the Colombian of a definite identity. The historical reality of Latin American countries occurs as the recurring fantastical world of Macondo. The desire for change and progress exists in Macondo as in the countries of Latin America, however, the story's temporal cycles symbolize the nationalist tendency for repeating history. 

... The desire for change and progress exists in Macondo as in the countries of Latin America, however, the story's temporal cycles symbolize the nationalist tendency for repeating history.

While I recall enjoying the novel, I guess I got busy and put it down and another one had captured my interest by the time I had was able to find some more reading time. 

The Works of Franz Kafka


Although the term Magical Realism was first identified as a genre associated with Latin American literature, it may not have originated there.  A German author,  Franz Kafka, writing in the 1920s, is arguably the founder.   According to Wiki:

Franz Kafka was one of the most influential novelists of the 20th century, whose works came to be regarded after his death as one of the major achievements of world literature. The term "Kafkaesque" has entered the English language. ... His body of work—the novels The Trial (1925), The Castle (1926) and Amerika (1927), short stories including The Metamorphosis (1915) and In the Penal Colony (1914)—is now considered among the most original in Western literature. Most of Kafka's output, much of it unfinished at the time of his death, was published posthumously.

 As you can see from the "Now also reading" panel on the right, I also have have a Franz Kafka work on the go.   My Kindle tells me I am 38% finished reading "The Works of Franz Kafka", which contains 3 of his best known stories plus a few others. I can't tell you how many pages this is - Books on the Kindle do not have pages, however for a comparison, Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is ends at "location" 1570 while this ends at "location" 4960 - so I have read a good piece.   As I recall, I left off reading "The Trial", which seemed to be almost dream like in its mixture of reality and fantasy.  I believe that is the most definitive feature of Magical Realism - it reads like you are in a dream.   As evidenced by me putting down two of this style in the last year with major portions read but not finished, they are not pot boilers, but gentle simmers even when written by the best of authors.

Doesn't this look like a big set of lips?

I'd like to go back to the original definition of Magical Realism, which according to Wiki is "an aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality".   I am wondering what deeper understanding of reality is possible when a novel, otherwise constrained to reality as we know it, lets loose those boundaries and allows fanciful notions to become ordinary?  I think the answer to this might be found by considering the value of dreaming. Reading these novels is a bit like reading a dream.   Answers to deep questions can arrive in your sleep - when your mind is allowed to make otherwise illogical connections to events, thoughts and desires and perhaps these novels will let our minds do likewise when reading them. 

 In any event, to conclude, I will make a very obvious observation - I seriously need to find  some reading time and catch up on all the novels I would like to read!  I think my answer may be in spending less time writing these long thoughtful blogs!  :)

September - Last of the Kayaking Weather?

Life has been in the fast lane for me of late. Lots of things going on in my corner of the world. Life is really really full and busy and that is not a bad thing. However, there are days when I wish that it weren't so. Today is one of them. Time flys by and before you know it one day flows into the next, weeks fly by and so do seasons and years... and phases of life. I feel I am on the precipice of a new phase, but somehow still on the treadmill wanting to step off but unable to since it is moving so fast and to some extent because I do enjoy "the fast lane".

While it might sound like I am complaining - I am not. Life is fabulous and wonderful. I am finding my new job challenging and rewarding, my colleagues have both impressed me with their competence and supportive manner and my new boss has made several comments that she is pleased with my work. I finally have my condo on the real estate market and a late November move in date for my new digs seems likely. None of my adult children are having serious issues.   I am in the early stages of a dating relationship and it is so nice to have a bit of spice in that area of my life even if for a while.  I could not ask for more. Certainly, I have everything in place for a great fall and winter and should be happy with that. 

Somehow though I am thinking of the next phase - when I can ease off work and spend more hours at play?  There is so much more I want to do and see and with 50+ hours a week at work there just is not enough time.    I really do work too hard.  But I am doing this for a reason.  I am saving my shekels for my sabbatical.

Sometime in the next few years I will take 4-6 months off and do a bit of a travel sabbatical. Today my thoughts are on that day. I am envious of my blog sphere friend Fram, who sits in his lake house in his "command centre" writing, reading and thinking and plotting where he might like to go for the winter - I am sure it will be Poland, but for how long? Anyway, me - I will be doing the 9 to 5 thing for sure all of this year (actually it is more like the 8 to 6ish thing, but you get the idea.)

Today, as I busy myself with chores at my Collingwood Shangri-La having just come back from my little paddle around White's Bay, I am wistful for summer and wishing I were in my next phase and planning some adventures. Instead I will make do with planning some smaller holidays and also some other adventures in my personal life which seem to be on the cook. (wink, wink, say no more!)

I tried to coax Bella into going out on the lake with me. She got in the kayak just for a moment and then decided the dock was a better place for a dog. I guess she was right. She waited patiently on the dock while I did my thing.

The water is really very warm this year and while there was a bit of a breeze it was not cold. I had a great paddle and got both some exercise and some mental R&R.

This song by Metallica really suits my mood.  Particularly this version with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.  The lyrics resonate with today's mood.



Nothing Else Matters
Songwriters: Hetfield, James Alan;Ulrich, Lars

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say
and nothing else matters

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
but I know

Never opened myself this way
Life is ours, we live it our way
All these words I don't just say

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us, something new
Open mind for a different view
and nothing else matters

never cared for what they say
never cared for games they play
never cared for what they do
never cared for what they know
and I know

So close, no matter how far
Couldn't be much more from the heart
Forever trusting who we are
No, nothing else matters

Labour Day Weekend at Cordova Lake

I have to apologize for lack of blogs in this last week. Too much on my plate and something has to give.  I am afraid I will probably have another week  of no week day blogs, like the last.   I have been getting my Toronto condo ready for sale (I am moving across the street, if you wonder why ready this blog  and/or this blog which explains all).   I have a move in date now of Nov 24th and I have to get the one I am in now sold. I have been quite the busy beaver painting and getting things in tip top shape. Showings start on Friday! Hopefully I will find more time in the coming weeks, as the demands of my job even out and I get my place sold.

View from the cottage road

Also, I was kindly invited to spend a weekend with some new friends at a cottage in the Kawartha Lakes area of Ontario. It is about 2.5 hours north east of Toronto, maybe half way to Ottawa. The weather was pretty cold and rainy, but we did have a bit of sun and was able to don coats and go for a long walk to the end of the lake which featured a dam and a bit of a waterfall.

The main cottage is hidden a distance from the water, but you can see the dock and the tiny Cove Cottage on the left.

We also did a boat tour of the lake, which is about 3 km long and maybe 1 km wide and dotted with smaller islands.  The photo above shows the dock area of the main cottage and the little cottage at lake's edge where I got to sleep in a bedroom which was  only feet from the water!  If it weren't for the cold nights I could have heard the water lapping onto the shore from an open window, which would have been heavenly.

This is typical Ontario cottage country Canadian shield landscape at it's best - pine, oak and birch trees and fairly rocky and  hilly terrain. Lake Cordova is named for the Cordova Mines which is now an official abandoned site, according to the Ontario Abandoned Places website:

Cordova Mines is a semi-ghost town in Halelock-Belmont-Methuen Township of Peterborough County just at the border with Hastings County, NE of Havelock. It was one of Ontario's goldrush boom towns circa 1892.

According to the Ghost Town Pix web site:

The mines at Cordova remained idle from 1917 to 1938, when another company, COMINCO (Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Canada), decided to give it one last run. COMINCO, now Teck Cominco Ltd., operated from 1938 to 1940, producing about 150 tons a day, which yielded a total value of $474,548. Following the company's departure, the mines were closed forever and all the mining buildings were dismantled. The dam and raceway were later used by the Deer Lake Fish Hatchery for many years, until it too shut down.

In our walk to the other end of the lake we went to he top of the dam mentioned in the note above, if I had known that the buildings beyond and the area was actually the remnants of a ghost town, perhaps I would have asked to explore further!

Maybe I will get to go back another time and can go on a bit better exploration of the area - it would be kind of neat to wander the around knowing it's history.

The Cove Cottage on Cordova Lake

Aside from a 3 km walk down the private road which services all the cottages on this part of the lake, we also did a boat tour around the lake, but ended up soaked to the skin when a torrential downpour decided to let go.  The photo above is the tiny lake edge cottage which rocked with music on both nights.

The temperature has sure dropped from last week's high 30+ degrees Celsius.  We had a high of about 16ish on each of the days and last night it dropped to 9 degrees!  As a consequence there was a lovely mist coming off the lake this morning which I was able to capture on a few pictures.

Great friendship, food, drink and music!  The evenings were spent listening to/singing along with Pat and Brian who had a great thing going - Pat on guitar and Brian on harmonica and both contributing vocals.  I was even able to provide a bit of accompanying harmony. I think we covered all of the important songs of our era - Neil Young covers being every one's favourite.  Many thanks to Kathy and Pat for their wonderful hospitality.  And thanks to Brian for being so kind as to invite me along in this extended family gathering.

Today is the last day of the CNE (which I blogged about a few weeks ago). Normally there is an air show on the last 3 days and it is usually fabulous.  Go here to read about the one from last year.  They had to cancel it as the weather was windy and rainy - the tail end of the hurricane which hit our east coast this weekend.  I took this photo as I noticed that the wind was blowing hard enough to make the giant Canada flag to flap in the wind.

Harvest Moon - My Desert Island song

This week we have the full moon in the sky known as the Harvest Moon. Big, bright and orange. Makes you want to stand out on the balcony and howl (just kidding...) I took some pictures of both the moon and the Toronto Skyline. It made me think of the Neil Young's song.

My "desert island song" is Neil Young's Harvest Moon. Listening to it just makes me feel really good. Calm, happy, loved. (Never mind I don't have a fella - I can dream, eh?) I just adore the Video that goes with it and the lyrics express a wonderful sentiment.


Come a little bit closer
Hear what I have to say
Just like children sleepin'
We could dream this night away.

But there's a full moon risin'
Let's go dancin' in the light
We know where the music's playin'
Let's go out and feel the night.

Because I'm still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I'm still in love with you
On this harvest moon.

When we were strangers
I watched you from afar
When we were lovers
I loved you with all my heart.

But now it's gettin' late
And the moon is climbin' high
I want to celebrate
See it shinin' in your eye.

Because I'm still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I'm still in love with you
On this harvest moon.